“God is Burning” - “God is Burning”
Li-Young depicts God as a kindle blazing unceasingly. The motif unremitting glowing signifies God’s all-round the clock consciousness. Unlike human beings, God is always alert and surveilling all the organisms that He birthed.
Alpha and Omega - “God is Burning”
Li-Young writes, “God binds the Alpha and the Omega.” Owing to His all-powerfulness, God autonomously edicts the foundation and the expiration of all manner of creations.
Punctures versus Consoles - “Arise, Go Down”
Li-Young elucidates, “I stand among my father’s roses/and see that what punctures outnumbers what consoles.” The consoles connote the gentleness that authorizes new flowers to ascend whereas the punctures denote the cruelness that makes the old flowers to descend. The consoles cancel out the punctures.
The Wind - “Have You Prayed”
The wind embodies the speaker’s father’s unconscious declaration. The poem begins, “When the wind/turns and asks, in my father’s voice,/Have you prayed?” The speaker symbolically associates the wind with his father’s voice. Clearly, the father contended that prayer was obligatory resulting in the registration of the mantra in the speaker’s unconscious.
